WIP

Yes, our local aristocrat seems to think that the only people who count are the nouveau riche in China, India and Russia. All three nations are experiencing sharp rises in poverty and income inequality. Unfortunately, Chinese political and business leaders seem to be the only ones who realize that the growing gap may cause greater instability - China's Growing Income Gap

How convenient that your source ends with 2009...the last year there were significant grain surpluses to bring commodity prices down. This looks eerily similar to the way global warming deniers play around with temperature data to try to make an argument that the planet is cooling! The trend until two years ago, was weakening yields in the world's major food exporters, and since 2009, that trend has resumed, thanks to the effects of extreme weather. Too bad this board doesn't allow posting images, because the FAO chart at the top of my link in the OP clearly shows the food price index peaked at the end of 2008, after several years of supplies unable to meet demand, and has resumed since the bumper harvests of 2009 to the point where now the FPI is higher than it was at its peak in 2008. No, it's your faith in free market fundamentalism that's not supported by evidence! Of course farmers are going to try to adapt to what's thrown at them -- that's the way it's always been for those living off the land. But, farmers today in the tropics are being asked to adapt to increasing droughts and floods...interesting that a new report on the situation in Kenya reveals that they have actually received more precipitation than normal! The problem is that it is coming after prolonged periods of drought, and coming down in cascades that do little more than wash away topsoil. IN other places - like India, more than 70% of underground aquifers are in decline. In a few years, India will be faced with a stark choice similar to the one Saudi Arabia is now dealing with - keep farming and run out of available water, or scale back agriculture and be forced to buy more imported food from abroad. Just as I figured, Pielke's source is International Food Policy Research Institute - a think tank created to advance the interests of agribusiness and the creators of GMO foods. IFPRI's analysis claims that FAO is using too much self-reporting data from third world nations they suspect of putting their hand out looking for aid...so what do they have to say about the developing famine right now in East Africa? This is just more rightwing crap from Pielke, similar to his ideologically constrained analysis of climate data.

The problem I have with a lot of news and political discussion is how subjects are compartmentalized as if they have no effect beyond their narrow topic boundaries. We can thank the mainstream news media for this, as they prefer to jump to the story of the day, or story of the hour as if it is something totally disconnected from everything else around it....and then it's totally ignored when they run off and chase the next story! Well, here is an example of how environmental issues of climate change and overpopulation affect us directly in the pocket book: Extreme Weather and Asian Demand are Poised to Boost Prices Even Higher Food prices are climbing back to historic levels, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports. Prices increased by 1.3% in June due to worries over bad sugar harvests from “a spell of two months without rain.” Food prices are poised to increase: Goldman Sachs said it expected further increases in a wide range of commodity prices this year and into 2012 – in food, as well as energy and metals – on the back of strong demand from Asia. However, Goldman is confident that now is a good time to get back into commodities. “We expect this [Asian] demand growth will be sufficient to tighten key commodity markets over the next six to 12 months, particularly for those markets where supply constraints will become binding even on slower economic growth,” said Jeffrey Currie, Goldman’s global head of commodities research. Joe Romm points out the unsettling analysis that for Goldman, food shortages and famines...all forms of suffering and misery are just another business opportunity for investors. And the extremely poor, who spend upwards of three quarters of their income on food, are competing with the West and the new burgeoning middle classes in the third world who want more meat and exotic foods: Growing global wealth, especially in China in India, is driving demand for more luxury foods, contributing to ballooning prices. But FAO warns that “potentially catastrophic” climate change will be the dominant driver of prices into the future. One thing that Climate Progress and the primary source - a recent FAO Report on food commodity prices doesn't cover is that rising food prices and scarcity is the likely catalyst behind growing unrest in many regions of the world. There will be fights over food, and the worst disaster scenario I can see is 'what happens if two nuclear-armed third world nations go to war over water rights and food scarcity...I'm thinking Pakistan and India here! This is probably the most likely scenario for a nuclear war in the near future.

Let's boil it all down to essentials. Your presentation on what you believe our energy needs are depend on maintaining the kind of society we have today. Here's a thought -- get rid of the car culture that the highway lobby has pushed on us since the end of WWII. The building and maintaining of private automobiles, and roads for their use, not to mention the energy needed to drive everyone around in their separate little iron boxes that weigh between one and four tons...try costing that out in energy use terms and then tell me how many power plants and windmills and lithium batteries we need to supply our energy needs! We've been told that everyone wants their own car and to spend their days driving an hour or more each way from the suburbs to work, but is this really true? Automobiles are the single, greatest cause of accidental death and injury by far, and have become larger as a factor causing stress illnesses than workplace, finances and other typical concerns. The fact is that our cities and suburbs are deliberately designed for the benefit of the automobile, and penalize everyone who either doesn't own a car or just wants to do less driving. The car culture has increased the stratification among income classes, since car ownership is an obvious larger burden for poor people living in cities with little or no alternative for transportation. Here's an excellent suggestion from Radio Ecoshock producer Alex Smith's latest episode: Kill The Car. And for further information: Yves Engler - Pushing our addiction to cars

It doesn't matter whether it is just a consequence of overshooting of available resources, or if there is some type of "Gaia"/"Mother Earth" in charge of managing the planet - the evidence is that extinctions and mass extinctions occur periodically. The difference between past extinctions and the Sixth Extinction...that the Earth is currently undergoing, is that this one has been caused by a mass infestation of one species that has forced too many other plant and animal species into extinction...and this species has also become the first in the planet's history to tip the carbon cycle into a positive feedback releasing an overabundance of greenhouse gases. Previously in Earth history, it took volcanic activity to create periods where Earth turns into a hothouse...and we've figured out how to do it all by ourselves! I guess some people consider this something to be proud of.

Isn't 7 billion enough? Let's see what happens in India over the next few years, and then tell me if you think populations can just keep growing without any consequences!

Only a few climate skeptics actually make money working on behalf of the oil companies! Most of them are in it for ideological reasons, because doing something about increased greenhouse gas levels requires international cooperation and government regulation....guess how libertarians and Ayn Rand fans take that news?

Good luck with this! I've tried to raise this point we are heading towards hard limits imposed by the biosphere and the rapid decline of many natural resources. And all of the economic mumbo jumbo about how to restore economic growth keeps ignoring the fact that we are fast approaching limits to further growth. Either we stop population growth, cut back dramatically on energy use, and put an end to car culture and other heavy uses of energy and materials that are not going to be sustainable for more than a few decades....or it's total collapse, and the next generation goes back to the stone age!

The data says twice as many record highs as record lows -- and you can't see that as a trend? Until very recently, there was too much ice, even in summer, for commercial shipping to try the Northwest Passage. I remember when a test run from Prudhoe Bay Alaska was made back in 1969 by the Manhattan -- a specially reinforced oil tanker, which made the passage with a couple of ice breakers. It was considered too risky back then, and wasn't commercially viable, so they built the Alaskan Pipeline to Valdez instead. Again, you are denying the obvious...like you're some kind of Baghdad Bob on the climate change issue: Posted by: JeffMasters, 3:42 PM GMT on July 08, 2011 Arctic sea ice in record retreat The summer melt season is in full swing in the Arctic, and sea ice there is in record retreat. Arctic sea ice is currently at its lowest extent on record for early July, according to estimates from the National Snow and Ice Data Center and University of Bremen. Satellites witness lowest Arctic ice coverage in history 14 September 2007 The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its lowest level this week since satellite measurements began nearly 30 years ago, opening up the Northwest Passage – a long-sought short cut between Europe and Asia that has been historically impassable. In the mosaic image above, created from nearly 200 images acquired in early September 2007 by the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument aboard ESA’s Envisat satellite, the dark gray colour represents the ice-free areas while green represents areas with sea ice. Leif Toudal Pedersen from the Danish National Space Centre said: "We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around 3 million sq km which is about 1 million sq km less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006. There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100 000 sq km per year on average, so a drop of 1 million sq km in just one year is extreme. If you're denying that rising CO2 levels increase the amount of energy absorbed by the atmosphere and the oceans - which would increase the likelihood of more frequent severe storms, then you are denying the laws of physics.

I don't consider 'which party gets more' to be a worthwhile issue in the first place! Because we know that they spend most of their time fundraising while in office; and afterwards, many are still cashing in when they collect ridiculously generous fees in their later careers as Washington lobbyists. But, if you want to keep trotting out a claim that the Republicans aren't getting as much as Democrats, here's some numbers from 2010... Supporting Republicans/ Opposing Democrats $197,398,622.13 Supporting Democrats/ Opposing Republicans $181,124,211.10 http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/outside-spending/totals Whose votes are Republicans buying when they insist on keeping tax subsidies for oil companies and corporate jets? That's why they have to use faith, fear and resentment to appeal to the great unwashed! And if Republicans knew economics, why did Bush bring in tax cuts that reduced tax revenues so precipitously, he turned a budget surplus into 5 trillion dollars in deficit spending?

The macroevolution definition I put up in giant letters is right from wikipedia...your usual source...I thought the reference number would tip you off. The basic definitions and explanations can also be found in wikipedia, or on the Talkorigins page that covers some basic proofs of evolution contained right in the study of genetics and proteins. The origins of transposons is unclear, and may have several causes, but viral code inserts or ERV's, are not the same thing. The diagram in the ERV article shows several viral gene insertions in the same chromosonal locations, from ancient ones that all primates carry, to newer ones that fewer species share. And that's why the author - Douglas Theobold, considers them a proof of evolution from common origins....trying to explain the gene insertions in the same locations, occurring to uniquely created creatures who have no common ancestors, would be extremely improbable. Either the Talkorigins page or Wikipedia articles show that your source conflated the two categories, and besides this huge error, he also misrepresents the findings that transposons...or at least some transposons, may play a role in gene regulation (worth noting that it is real scientists who are discovering these features about retrotransposons...not the so called creation scientists). The vast majority of them do not, and certainly dormant retrovirus genetic codes do not perform any such function, so he has no leg to stand on by making his outlandish claim that everything in our genome has a role to play....besides making copies of themselves. The page also covers other junk DNA categories like pseudogenes -- which at some point in the distant past, did perform the function of coding proteins and then through mutations, were shut down and became dormant, non-coding genes. So they also have no purpose besides making copies of themselves. The only purpose served by the vast majority of non-coding genes is, as previously mentioned, they lessen the likelihood of mutations that could cause deformities or cause cancer. Do you ever read your own sources? The diagram about that Mesopotamian cosmology is six levels only in the sense that it has a three level heaven. Now, I believe I mentioned that the ancient Hebrews believed stars were suspended from the firmament, and the abode of Yahweh was above that of the angels and lesser heavenly creatures, so what is your point? And why are you bringing this up, unless you believe in a three story heaven above a flat earth and an underworld? Here is a better, more descriptive map of the ancient understanding of the Cosmos.

At some point the question has to be asked "how much is your life worth?" And in this case, that would include the lives of future generations. How much are we paying for the cost of doing nothing? You won't find that one at Foxnews! There are billions of dollars lost in the floods, droughts and tornadoes that have had a real dampening effect on the U.S. economy, and the economic costs of doing nothing and burning more and more oil are going to keep on rising. It's worth pointing out that this is a 'pay me now, or pay me later' situation. Just as you end up paying a lot more if you decide to delay replacing the timing belt in your car's engine if it breaks, we have a similar situation with climate change - since the costs of mitigating the damaging effects would have been a lot less if the global economies started reducing CO2 emissions 10 or 20 years ago, instead of waiting till now...a time when it is becoming obvious that positive feedback cycles are already in effect, and a lot of change is already in the pipeline just waiting to hit us even if we stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow!

What's your point? Republican candidates still get more money, even from Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, than Democrats do. The only difference I can see between the two parties is that the Democrats are trying to appeal to lower income voters on economic issues, while figuring a way to grab as much corporate cash as possible, while Republicans have no qualms about their toadying to CEO's, and pull out the religion and social issues to scare up some votes from lower income voters to get enough votes to win an election.

Yeah, I think Sigmund Freud said "sometimes a banana is just a banana," but when repeated, record bad weather occurs over a longer period of time, we have evidence of a climatic trend: Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows. The ratio of record highs to lows is likely to increase dramatically in coming decades if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to climb. http://www.physorg.com/news177254019.html Every time Sean Hannity or some other clown at Foxnews sees a record cold temp somewhere, or a record snowfall, we can count on these morons to say something like 'where's your global warming now?' while ignoring the trend that the above research is pointing out. When record highs outnumber record lows, you have a clear, unmistakeable trend, and trying to deny it by calling it a normal weather oscillation is not even an argument! Couldabin, shouldabin, wouldabin. How about the evidence that the Northwest Passage is now navigable, at least during the late summer, by regular marine shipping - when did that happen before? We don't need computer models to prove that rising temperatures and CO2 levels will reduce food production, because the severe weather that's been occurring around the world is already causing havoc with grain harvests and driving up food prices. You don't have to examine any computer models...just turn on the news.

Would gayrriage include all of the rights guaranteed by marriage and recognized in civil law? I think this is the crux of the issue why gays have generally rejected these little sub-marriage categories like civil unions. A civil union doesn't guarantee that all levels of government will recognize the partnership as a marriage, and entitled to the same privileges. The problem with creating some new category of same sex marriage, instead of just recognizing the relationship as a marriage is brought home by incidents such as one that my aunt described over 25 years ago while working as a nurse at the hospital. In brief, an elderly gay man, who was about 70 to 75 years old, as I recall - had terminal cancer, and was being visited every day by his gay partner of many decades. Well, that was until the vultures...I mean the family of the dying man arrived on the scene and banned his partner from seeing him. And, at the time, they were well within their legal rights as the man's domestic partner had no legal rights in the situation, while one of the dying man's sisters was able to claim power of attorney over the dying man's affairs and most of his estate. My aunt learned that the gay partner, who legally owned half of the house he shared with the man, was forced to put the house up for sale because the vultures claimed half of the house as part of estate after the dying man passed on....now does that sound fair or righteous to anyone? Yet that is how these situations were handled back in the good days when all of the homos were in the closet and no one breathed a word about gay rights, let alone gay marriage.

Let me put this in terms that betsy can understand: The Reason Why There Is No Clear Evidence For Macroevolution Is Because Macroevolution is: "the compounded effects of microevolution.[8] Thus, the distinction between micro- and macroevolution is not a fundamental one – the only difference between them is of time and scale." In Other Words, If You Accept Microevolution, You're Stuck With Macroevolution, Because That Is The Natural Result Of Microevolution Over Long Periods Of Time! My apologies to everyone else's vision who got caught unprepared for that giant bold text. Wow! This so called "creation research is even dumber than I expected! I'm no biologist, let alone geneticist, but even I have read enough articles on junk DNA to know that there is a difference between transposons and endogenous retroviruses....and the idiot who wrote that article is conflating the two as the same thing. For instance: One class of transposons, called “retrotransposons,” is formed when DNA is copied into RNA, which is then reverse-copied back into DNA. Retrotransposon sequences had been almost dogmatically interpreted by evolutionary scientists as remnants of ancient viruses. These viruses supposedly infected the host organism long ago, and it was assumed that the viral DNA became incorporated into one or more of its chromosomes. Wrong! And what he is actually describing here are endogenous retroviruses; transposons are merely DNA codes that can "move" or transpose themselves to new positions within a cell's genome. The retrotransposon is a sub-category of transposons that can copy themselves to RNA, but can also reverse transcribe themselves from RNA back into DNA, and the new copy is inserted into a new position in the genome. More silliness: Evolutionists have argued that they must have been introduced by the same virus before the two species diverged from a (presumably) ape-like ancestor. Thus, each species retains today a remnant of the same ancient viral infection. This is often cited as strong evidence that humans and chimpanzees share common ancestry, and therefore that broad-scale evolution is true―that single cells can eventually develop into humans through random natural forces. This is currently one of evolution’s best arguments. Again! That's ERV not Retrotransposons! Notice that this little article doesn't actually deal with their problem that many animals, such as humans and chimpanzees carry identical ERV insertions in our respective genomes; so how did they get there? Did God create this jumbled, overly complicated genome complete with dormant viral DNA codes that are identical with other animals? Or would the most logical conclusion be that the at least seven insertions humans and chimpanzees have in common were the results of viral infections in the germ cells of some distant ancestors of both of our species, that just happened to reverse transcribe their RNA code into the DNA, and into the newly created genome of the young creature....and as time went on, and our two species diverged over the last six million years, we are still carrying the DNA patterns of those ancient viruses in both the chimpanzee, and the human genome. ERV insertions are freakish, almost implausible events, because a viral infection at that early stage of life would likely kill the new organism and never have a chance to leave a legacy. But, over time, even the almost impossible does happen, and we carry the evidence in the human genome, as at least 7% of the human genome is made up of codes left behind by endogenous retroviruses. Now, back to the article...this clown apparently got excited a research paper (which is not given a link source) published in Nature, finds that at least some transposons carry functional genetic code that can be used in cells for the purpose of gene regulation, which he frames around the false claim that: Many scientists still believe that these repeated segments contain nearly random, functionless, non-coding sequences with which “evolution” can tinker. Total bullshit! But we're used to it. There is no claim made by geneticists that junk DNA has NO purpose..that is a total and complete lie! Junk DNA is a catch-all category to describe all of the genetic inserts in a genome that do not code proteins or direct that use in a cell. That's not the same thing as claiming they have to be random or functionless...and that's another reason why this creationist should have at least tried to do a little reading on the subject he is trying to debunk. I'd like to see him step up to a geneticist...or Richard Dawkins for that matter, and try to make this argument. For one example, it has long been recognized that junk DNA sequences lower the odds of dangerous mutations from radiation or other factors. Now, after wasting at least half an hour responding to an article that doesn't even describe the subject properly, can I have my half hour back Betsy?

Your faux outrage tries to divert attention from the fact that it is RIGHT wing pundits, religious leaders and politicians who are fighting to defend marriages like mine from the threat posed by allowing same-sex couples to get married.

Tim, turn on the Weather Channel some time, or just take a look at a typical newscast and note how often the weather IS the news! I don't see any point to falling into the denial trap of arguing about climate models and data sets, when the crucial facts are beyond debate: the Arctic Ice Cap has shrunk by 40% since the time of my youth when we observed the first deep space pictures of Earth from the cameras on Apollo 8. To call such dramatic change, along with the increase in greenhouse gas levels and ocean acidification since then - "naturall oscillating" effects is just denying the obvious! In other news: Rising Temperatures Melting Away Global Food Security we have further evidence that rising temperatures are already cutting significantly into global food production. These "natural variations" in weather are leading to soaring food prices, migrations, and unrest in many places around the world already!

You "suspect" he had sexual contact because the D.A.'s Office stated that there is uncontrovertible proof that a sexual encounter occurred between the chambermaid and this rat bag! So, he can't deny a physical encounter, but has to resort to the claim that a busy chambermaid trying to get her rooms cleaned was just looking for the opportunity to drop to her knees and blow a wrinkled 80 year old man! There is a long list of stories about DSK the sexual predator, and a long history of women in low-paying domestic positions being preyed upon by wealthy, well-connected men. So, maybe my personal experiences are a little biased by my time as a youth working in a five star hotel and seeing the sense of entitlement that rich, powerful businessmen walk around with!

I don't think that there is any accident that the most successful practitioners of unfettered capitalism are dictatorships! Remember when Bush One was arguing for liberalizing trade with China with the argument that China's move towards capitalism would strengthen the democracy movement? Bush didn't make it up himself; Milton Friedman and his acolyte - Alan Greenspan were promoting this ideology that free markets leads to political freedom. Pretty much the opposite has happened. Even democratic societies become less free when a wealthy elite control most of the nation's wealth.

What you are talking here is faith-based economic theory! You have a notion that acting collectively (as human societies did until modern times) to take a little from those who have, to those who are dispossessed or displaced by economic factors outside of their control, is going to lead to social calamity. And, I've heard of the "free rider" problem that is going to add something to overall costs -- nevertheless, a comparison of nations, and even state or provincial governments within nations, consistently shows that those societies that provide public services and a decent social safety net function much better than the libertarian paradises where it's every man for himself! I can give you many examples, including Mexico and other nations in Latin America and Africa, where the free trade agreements carried demands that the poor nation remove import tariffs on food products, along with restrictions against foreign ownership of their agriculture. The net effect has been that subsistence agriculture...which may have been labour intensive and not as high in total yield, still provided most of the essential foods locally. So, this was the STICK, and the CARROT has been to provide the millions of bankrupt farmers forced off their land and into overcrowded cities with factory jobs. If there was any improvement in living standards, it is just short term, since the ecological destruction of the new industries, and the new fertilizer and water-intensive farms cannot be compensated for by jobs in the new sweat shops. I believe that in the next 10 years...possibly 20 years, China is going to collapse into internal turmoil! The major reason is that they are discovering...likely too late, that they are headed into an ecological disaster caused by global warming and air and water pollution. Also, a subject that is rarely discussed, is that the old Maoist tyranny was maintained by relative equality between the peasants in the countryside, which made up 80% of the population, with the city-dwellers. That equality has been shattered by the Communist Party's embrace of unbridled capitalism that many are starting to realize, is providing more for some than for others. The promise that capitalism would benefit everyone is turning out as big an empty promise as the promises that free trade promoters gave us 30 years ago! Even some of China's wealthy elite are getting nervous about the growing wealth gap....so, I guess that puts them a little higher up the evolutionary ladder than the leaders of business and industry over here...like the Koch's!

Which is neither here nor there! My irritation with your zen post about how the sky is different than it used to be, is that it has nothing to do with the topic...not even if it veers off on chem trails and con trails.

All we have to do is take a look at the long parade of politicians who have engaged in careless and often reckless sexual behaviour, and you start to wonder if the system rewards the most dysfunctional among us! I haven't been following this story too closely, but I was skeptical of the likelihood that an immigrant domestic female would have recourse for justice against a wealthy, well connected rich man. The Prosecution was looking for an excuse to cave and drop charges, and be done with it! Similar things have happened to other chambermaids and domestics who work around the rich and powerful. Sexual assaults and attempted assaults are common in many posh hotels, and the management usually tries to sweep it under the table and cover it up with a cheap bribe for the victim. That may have been the case in this story, considering that they delayed notifying police for more than 3 hours after being informed of the incident. Anyway, back in France DSK has another female complainant about to press charges for an incident that was reported several years ago, but had no complaint filed at the time. DSK's people are already at work leaking stories to the press smearing her reputation and threatening a counter-suit in advance of any trial. According to the rumour mills in France, this guy had a history of such behaviour, but was able to get away or buy is way out of it in the past. This profile sounds like a man addicted to risky, forced sex...maybe at his age, he couldn't get it up for normal sex any more!

The real facts are that warming has not stopped, and is increasing...and why shouldn't the world by getting warmer! All of the factors forcing the increase in global temperatures: an accelerating rate of carbon dioxide increase, increase in methane and other greenhouse gases, and the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice allowing for more sunlight to be absorbed -- are all pointing the way towards a warmer planet. The so called "skeptics" have to provide reasons why natural factors that are tipping the planet towards increased temperatures would have no effects...then they could deal with the temp data that shows the past decade was the warmest on record.

In fact, I did have you confused with someone else! Like I said before, I don't have the answer to solve the Middle East, and there may be no solution aside from the one that's developed over the last decades - Israel becoming a modern day Sparta. But, there are costs to being permanently at war, and I object to pro-Israel backers portraying Israel as the nation in the Middle East that is just like us....free, secular, democratic etc. That may have been true before 1967, when the Israeli Arab population was a manageable 10% of the total; but the modern State of Israel has seen an exodus of secular Jews hoping for an end to hostilities, while having an influx of Orthodox Jews who want a theocracy, and an expulsion of all Arabs from occupied territories. My primary objection is that under a Harper Government, we are finding that Canada is making the same mistake as the U.S. -- writing blank cheques for whatever policies Netanyahu or other Israeli governments want to carry out. I think the claim of "spreading democracy" by the Neocons has been thoroughly revealed to be a shallow ruse to hide the real agenda: the plundering of resources by U.S. backed corporations. It's ironic that conservatives in the U.S. are running away from the word "democracy" when it's applied to domestic politics...they insist on using the term "representative republic" instead. Funny that they would want democracy for others, but not for their own people! I recall that at least since the time the Likud first took over, under Menachem Begin, they were declaring that they would never give up any of the West Bank, and the policy of building settlements, and encouraging immigrants to settle the West Bank became government policy. So, was there ever a serious attempt by previous Israeli governments to reach a peace agreement? Or did they calculate many years ago that peace would be too costly, compared to a policy of delay and building up military superiority. The "Peace Process" has been revealed in the Wikileaks cables as a ruse for Western consumption. I guess the Mormons were lucky when they found Utah! It was mostly empty territory at the time they arrived. I just took a glance at the British Uganda Program. It would have presented similar problems as the taking of Palestine, but I'm surprised that England at that time, with its vast colonial empire, couldn't have found something more suitable....Australia was mostly empty at that time...but the British may have been more concerned with losing control of territory.